Who, if Anyone, at State Approved Hillary’s Personal Email Server?

One of the (many) still unanswered questions about Hillary’s private email server while she was secretary of state is who, if anyone, at the State Department approved or authorized it?

Clinton herself has long maintained that everything she did was within the rules, suggesting at some points that her server was “approved.” Perhaps. But who determined no rules were being broken? Was it Hillary alone? Her own lawyers? Or was the bureaucracy of State bent to her desire? Were there objections raised by State’s Diplomatic Security to the home-brew server and if so, how were those objections dealt with? Were they ignored? Did the people at State who should have been involved in the decision to use a private server — IT staff, security staff — even know about it?

The Republicans have so far failed to ask any of these questions. Finding the person at State who signed off on the server, or determining no one at State signed off, would go a long way toward answering those questions, above. So would some reporter with access to the Clinton campaign please ask?

And be specific; here’s what happened the one and only time I could find that the issue came up at all. Via the State Department’s own transcript (“Mr. Toner” was then State’s spokesperson):

QUESTION: But do you know who signed off on her having a private server?

MR TONER: Who signed off on her? I don’t, no.

QUESTION: I mean —

QUESTION: Did anybody?

MR TONER: Again, I’m not going to answer that question. I’m not going to litigate that question from the podium.

QUESTION: So you’re saying that nobody signed off on her having a private server?

MR TONER: No. I’m saying – look, everyone – there were – people understood that she had a private server. I think we’ve talked about that in the past.

QUESTION: What level was that knowledge? How high did that go up in this building?

MR TONER: I mean, you’ve seen from the emails. You have an understanding of people who were communicating with her, at what level they were communicating at, so —

QUESTION: Was there anybody in this building who was against the Secretary having her own private server?

MR TONER: I can’t answer that. I can’t.

QUESTION: And just —

MR TONER: I mean, I don’t have the history, but I also don’t have – I don’t have the authority to speak definitively to that.

QUESTION: But —

MR TONER: Again, these are questions that are appropriate, but appropriate for other processes and reviews.

QUESTION: But not the State Department? She was the Secretary of State and —

MR TONER: No, I understand what you’re asking. But frankly, it’s perfectly plausible – and I talked a little bit with Arshad about this yesterday – is for example, we know that the State IG is – at the Secretary’s request – is looking at the processes and how we can do better and improve our processes. And whether they’ll look at these broader questions, that’s a question for them.
[….]
QUESTION: So last opportunity here: You don’t know who signed off on Secretary Clinton having her own server?

MR TONER: Again, I don’t personally, but I don’t think it’s our – necessarily our responsibility to say that. I think that that’s for other entities to look at.